For Vier x Vier with Theater a/d Rijn Cheroney Pelupessy was invited to create a short piece to feature in an evening alongside three other pieces developed at the same production house. She commissioned me to make gamelan-inspired music within my own signature with quite a short development period.
Tom van Wee - Gamelan
Gamelan is an incredibly deep and intricate type of music that I wouldn't be able to grasp completely even if I studied it for quite a few years. I decided on working with samples of the instruments and pitching them to a western scale using small intervals to 'fake' the same tension I would hear in traditional recordings.
The proof is in the pudding I think, the piece that I ended up writing (featuring my HEMA blokfluit) does hit the spot whilst highlighting the traditional instrumentation.
Photo: Kevin Canales
Choreography:
Cheroney Pelupessy
Dance:
Simon Mual, Geronimo Huwaë en Yasmin Diktas
Music:
Tom van Wee